Christopher Greaves

416-621-9348 cgreaves@chrisgreaves.com
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Encryption And Off-site Backup Storage (Home) ; Overview ; The Problem ; The Essence Of The Solution ; How Long Does It Take To Do A Backup? ; Assumptions ; Breakdown Of Tasks ; The Stand-Alone Solution ; The Networked Solution ; Let’s Get Started ; Mounting The Backup Drive ; Mounting An Encrypted Drive ; Waiting For The Backup Drive ; Processing Each Local Drive ; RoboCopy New And Later Files ; RoboCopy Parameter Files ; Append Session Details To A Log File ; Shutting Down the Computer ; Review For Local Systems ; Putting Together The Local Backup System ; SUBSTituting A Drive For A Folder ; Assembling The Batch File ; ( TITLE commands ); Running The Backup Batch File ; Examining Our Results ; Waiting For A Set Of Drives ; Issue the Backup Command To A Set Of Drives ; Modifying The Driving Batch File ; What About The Log File? ; The Upgraded Set Of Batch Files ; Encryption of backup data ; What Is Involved In Encrypting A Backup Device? ; ( Advice On Passwords ); What Is Involved In Mounting An Encrypted Device? ; User Mounted Or Automated? ; Using A DOS Batch File To Facilitate Mounting ; Using A DOS Batch File To Facilitate Dismounts ; Making The External Drives Available Across The Network ; Mounting A Shared Drive For Sharing ; Installing On A Networked Computer ; Running On The Big Beige Box ; An Improved Method Of Waiting ; Shutdown Or Restart? ; At Long Last! A Working Version! ; The Backup.BAT file ; The Mount.BAT file ; The ProcessDrive.BAT file ; The Shutdown.BAT File ; The Encryption Process

Toronto and Mississauga, Friday, December 03, 2010 8:27 AM

Advice On Passwords

I have found the following techniques to be useful, to me.

New Techniques

When I am faced with new technology, no matter whether I’m exploring a computers BIOS settings, encrypted drives or files, protection in spreadsheets or documents etc, in fact, anything at all related to computers, I use as a password the 8-letter string “password”.

It’s the least secure password I can think of.

Which is good.

Because when I’m exploring new technology, I have enough on my plate without discovering that I’ve forgotten or can’t locate the clever string I invented as a password.

“password” is easy to remember and type in during the learning phase.

Once you are expert, change the password to “ew5txkziankcwh” or similar.

Generating A Recallable Password

Born in England, migrated to Australia at age 10, there’s not a person alive on the face of this earth knows what is in my memory of those first ten years of my life in Lancashire.

For passwords that must be stored in my mind, I use an event that is already stored in my mind. After all, if it’s lasted at least fifty years so far, it’s not likely to disappear any time soon.

For a project or device that is related to productivity, I use some event related to being productive before I was ten years old.

I also record the password in a file somewhere.

Generating A Random Password String.

Two methods come to hand:

The Book Method

Open any book at a page at random.

Use the first letter of the first ten lines on that page. Use the last digit of the page number too.

No one is going to guess that string in a hurry.

Note that this method even works with a large book such as The Canadian Oxford Dictionary.

The Computer Method

I wrote a couple of useful macros called “PassWordOfTheDay” and “PassWordOfTheTime” which type an appropriate string directly into my open document.

I obtain strings such as “ew5txkzi”, “341xibva” and “ew5txkzianhpt” with ease.

I usually add an extra letter or digit directly from the keyboard.

Recording Passwords

This is sometimes known as the “Passwords.doc” strategy.

I created a document with a 3-column table.

Each time I need to generate a new password, I record the date in column 1, the application and user name in column 2, and the password in column 3.

I copy the password to the clipboard, save and close the “Passwords.doc” before returning to the application and pasting the password from the clipboard.

(Can you work out why I close the document before using the password?)

When I want to feel extra-secure, I’ll paste the string two or three times, just to make it a longer string.

And no, the document isn’t named “Passwords.doc”; I’m not giving them away! It’s called “ewq5txkzi.doc”, but even then I’m not really telling you the truth.

Toronto and Mississauga, Friday, December 03, 2010 8:27 AM